Islam by country · Africa
Islam in Botswana: history and Muslim population data
Explore CoMPS research on the historical journey of Islam in Botswana, alongside population data and an interactive timeline.
Open Botswana in the interactive map
History of Islam in Botswana
The Republic of Botswana has an area of 581,730 sq km and its map is presented in Figure 3.5.2. It was occupied by the British in 1885 and gained its independence from the UK in 1966 when it changed its name from Bechuanaland. Islam arrived here in 1890 with Indian traders and workers that were brought by the British. Based on census data, the Muslim population increased from 44 or 0.04% in 1911, to 98 or 0.03% in 1946, to 384 or 0.07% in 1964, to 3,628 or 0.3% in 1991, to 5,036 or 0.4% in 2001, to 10,148 or 0.7% in 2011. The last two censuses included only population twelve-years and older in the religion category.
Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims will increase by a quarter of a percentage point per decade; then the Muslim population is expected to reach 60,000 or 1.8% by 2050 and 0.13 million or 3.0% by 2100.
Historical Muslim population dataset for Botswana
The figures below are from the CoMPS historical dataset. Population values are expressed in thousands; 2100 is a modelled projection, not a present-day count.
| Year | Total population (thousands) | Muslim population (thousands) | Muslim share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1900 | 120.0 | 0.024 | 0.02% |
| 2000 | 1,709 | 7.35 | 0.43% |
| 2100 | 4,179 | 125.4 | 3.00% |
For the full time series and visualisation, use the interactive map above.